Tabloid Tales of the Past

May 22, 2002

Jurors continued today to deliberate the manslaughter case of former Assistant Lairdsville Fire Chief Alan G. Baird III in County Court. On Tuesday and again this morning they asked the judge for definitions of law on a lesser charge than what the prosecution is seeking.

Dr. Mason H. Somerville was introduced today as the new president of the SUNY Institute of Technology at Utica-Rome. He replaces Peter Cayan, who will step down at the end of June after 20 years at the campus in the Town of Marcy.

May 22, 1992

About 1,065 students received degrees or certificates from Mohawk Valley Community College today in afternoon commencement ceremonies in the Utica Memorial Auditorium. County Executive Raymond A. Meier addressed the Class of 1992, family and guests.

May 22, 1982

The Board of Regents yesterday tabled action on a controversial change in the state regulations that would give public school districts greater flexibility in scheduling physical education classes and hiring coaches for interscholastic sports. One of the proposed changes protested by teaches and coaches’ organizations would enable districts without available qualified certified teachers to go outside the faculty ranks for coaches.

May 22, 1972

An intensified effort to arrange for the competitive bid purchase of more materials and supplies at Rome Hospital was called for at a meeting of the Board of Managers.

May 22, 1962

The Common Council has appointed six men as members of the newly authorized Rome Industrial Development Commission. They are Robert M. Lake, Fred P. Sestito, A.D. Ross Fraser, James C. O’Shea, Louis G. Gleasman and James Kozma.

May 22, 1952

The State Police will open a substation at Sylvan Beach.

Members of the Rome Interchurch Youth Council are engaged in rehabilitating the parish house of the Federated Church at Amboy Center.

Today is Tuesday, May 22, the 143rd day of 2012. There are 223 days left in the year.

Today in History

On May 22, 1972, President Richard Nixon began a visit to the Soviet Union, during which he and Kremlin leaders signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

On this date:

In 1761, the first American life insurance policy was issued in Philadelphia to a Rev. Francis Allison, whose premium was six pounds per year.

In 1860, the United States and Japan exchanged ratifications of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce during a ceremony in Washington.

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appeared before Congress to explain his decision to veto a bill that would have allowed World War I veterans to cash in bonus certificates before their 1945 due date.

In 1939, the foreign ministers of Germany and Italy, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Galeazzo Ciano, signed a "Pact of Steel" committing the two countries to a military alliance.

In 1947, the Truman Doctrine was enacted as Congress appropriated military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey.

In 1960, an earthquake of magnitude 9.5, the strongest on record, struck southern Chile, claiming some 1,655 lives.

In 1962, Continental Airlines Flight 11, en route from Chicago to Kansas City, Mo., crashed after a bomb apparently brought on board by a passenger exploded, killing all 45 occupants of the Boeing 707.

In 1968, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, sank in the Atlantic Ocean. (The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.)

In 1969, the lunar module of Apollo 10, with Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene Cernan aboard, flew to within nine miles of the moon’s surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.

In 1972, the island nation of Ceylon became the republic of Sri Lanka.

In 1981 "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe was convicted in London of murdering 13 women and was sentenced to life in prison.

In 1992, after a reign lasting nearly 30 years, Johnny Carson hosted NBC’s "Tonight Show" for the last time.

Ten years ago

A jury in Birmingham, Ala., convicted former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry of murder in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls. (Cherry, sentenced to life, died in a prison hospital in 2004.) The remains of Chandra Levy, the federal intern who’d disappeared more than a year earlier, were found in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park.

Five years ago

British prosecutors accused former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi of murder in the radioactive poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. (Russia, however, has refused to extradite Lugovoi.) Olympic gold medalist speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno and his professional dance partner, Julianne Hough (huhf), won ABC’s "Dancing With the Stars."

One year ago

A tornado devastated Joplin, Mo., with winds up to 250 mph, claiming at least 159 lives and destroying about 8,000 homes and businesses. President Barack Obama defended his endorsement of Israel’s 1967 boundaries as the basis for a future Palestine, telling the American Israel Public Affairs Committee his views reflected longstanding U.S. policy. Joseph Brooks, 73, the Academy Award-winning songwriter of "You Light Up My Life" who was awaiting trial for rape, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment, a suicide.